Gaza - The Humanitarian Cost

Many apologies for not posting yesterday - the goal is one or two short pieces today, and then back to the longer, slightly more rambling style manyana.

As the fragile ceasefire in Gaza enters its fifth day, it's possible to begin tallying the humanitarian costs of the fighting. (For a timeline of the crisis, see here.)

The UN reports the following figures.

Total Casualties

- There have been 1,300 Palestinians killed, including 410 children and 104 women
- There have been 5,300 Palestinians wounded, including 1,855 children and 795 women
- There have been 13 Israelis killed, and 84 Israelis wounded

UN Casualties

- 5 UNRWA staff were killed during the fighting; five were injured
- 3 UNRWA contractors were killed, and four were injured
- 1 WFP contractor was killed, and three were injured

Attacks Against Humanitarian Installations

- 50 UN buildings hit
- 1 UN compound hit
- 1 NGO installation hit
- 4 humanitarian convoys attacked

Other Figures (from the BBC):

- More than 4,000 buildings destroyed; more than 20,000 severely damaged
- 50,000 homeless in Gaza, and 400,000 without running water

Numbers alone, however, fail to give a sense of what it was like to live in Gaza over the past three weeks.  As far as I'm concerned, there's been no voice more harrowing than that of Jawad Harb, a CARE employee in Gaza who blogged throughout the fighting.

As Jawad wrote on Monday, describing the ceasefire:

"The first thing I noticed was the quiet. For the first time in three weeks, there were no bombs, no screams. Ceasefire.

Last night, for the first time in three weeks, I was able to sleep for six hours. Our children slept peacefully. They were not worried or frightened. I can watch them sleeping at night, and not worry about a bomb falling on the house. I feel human again.Slowly, people started moving, to see what the destruction was like in our neighbourhood. The first day, the people were a bit skeptical, not totally relaxed, especially when we heard that there were air strikes in the north, and we could still see planes overhead.

I went out with my children downtown for the first time in three weeks. They really felt sad about the nearby park; it was destroyed during the first week, along with houses. Now there is no place for them to play – that was the only park.

...

Everyone is relieved that the ceasefire is here, but many people are worried about the damage to the people, to the infrastructure, to everything. Many people say the Gazans were abandoned by the whole world. There is so much damage, so many things destroyed.

One hundred dead bodies were discovered yesterday under the rubble. This is very shocking – they were there for weeks. In the silence, people are talking about their sadness. They are recalling their anguish.

It’s not easy to forget the moments of the war. We are happy for the ceasefire, but there are no celebrations yet. We want a permanent peace. The blockade on Gaza must end. We hope that Gaza will open up to the rest of the world, and we can work, and live, just like everyone else. Tomorrow, I will go to work again for CARE. We will start to rebuild.

We are watching, waiting to see what comes next. But today, I am hopeful."

To read Jawad's full post, see here.  For more first-hand accounts by aid workers, see the recent article by Reuters AlertNet - In Their Own Words: Aid workers assess the Gaza crisis.

Finally, for a UN map showing damage in Gaza, see here.

[Photo of Gaza from Getty Images]